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Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Life of Pi - Review (2012)

I
will admit, when I first heard of this film, I had little interest in
it. I could not see them keeping a film about a kid (Suraj Sharma) lost
at sea on a boat interesting for more than half an hour or so. Through
some great old fashioned story telling they do, without a moment of
boredom. The boat scenes show moments of real emotion, regret,
braveness, creativity, fear, doubt and tenderness. We are not given a
godlike hero with all the answers, we learn as he learns, we explore as
he explores.If
you do not know, Life of Pi, tells the story of Pi as narrated by
himself as an adult (Irfan Khan.) It consists of two major parts, Pi’s
life as a child in India and his 227 days on a boat with a Bengal tiger.
When
it is working the film feels like sitting down with a master
storyteller that is spinning a web of wonder while the listeners
envision in their head the images of what he is saying. Instead of
making our minds provide the imagery, Ang Lee and company in a very
picturesque fashion breaths life into each chapter of this tale. The
result is a beautifully shot film seamlessly combines old fashioned
storytelling and the latest technology to bring the words of the novel
to life. Unlike so many films that try their hand a 3d the use here
does not come across as a gimmick, but rather than a medium to craft a
story. Missing are the scenes that only exist to display the technical
capabilities or use exaggerated 3D conventions to wow the audience. The
3D is finally used solely to enhance the storytelling. The
film is hampered down by the recurring scenes of the adult Pi as he
tells his story to an author there to turn his tale into a book. The
scenes do provide a breather from the incredible scenes on the boat, but
little else. Pi has a great deal to say about spirituality that is
supposed to tie together all of what we are seeing, it partially
succeeds. At the same time comes across as preachy like a friend that
enjoys the smokeable offerings of the world (recently legalized in
Colorado) a little too much and temporarily thinks everything he has to
say is deep and important. Combine that with the blank staring writer
(Rafe Spall) that seems to serve little to no purpose and all the work
put into telling a grand and beautiful fable loses a little bit of its
luster.8 out of 10